Professional Documents
Culture Documents
www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter
Written by Nick Chu
Glossary of Usage
Though usage often depends on context, below are some explanations of the general situations in
which some words are used (or not used).
1. amount, number:
Amount refers to something that cannot be counted. This amount of food can feed us for a
week!
Number refers to something that can be counted. This number of granola bars will not last
the hour.
4. awhile, a while:
Only use awhile (one word) if it does not follow a preposition such as for, in, or after. It has
been awhile since I last saw you.
After a preposition, always use a while (two words). Why dont you stop by and chat for a
while? (A while comes after the preposition for.)
5. between, among:
Use between for exactly two items. We raised a total of $1,500 between our two teams.
6. breathe, breath:
To breathe is to perform the action of inhaling and exhaling. It is a verb. If you start to panic,
remember to breathe.
Breath is what is actually exhaled. It is a noun. Its so cold today that I can see my breath.
7. continual, continuous:
An action or event is continual if it happens again and again. I am tired of Dannys continual
late-night phone calls. (Danny calls every night.)
An action or event is continuous if it occurs without interruption. I had the longest
continuous conversation with Danny last night. (The conversation lasted three hours without
an interruption.)
9. enormity, enormousness:
Enormity is the severitythe figurative sizeof a situation or phenomenon. We have yet
to understand the enormity of this discovery.
Enormousness is the literal size of an object. Few people can fathom the enormousness of the
ocean.
Activity 1
Correct the word choice errors in the following sentences. Some sentences have multiple errors.
References
Lunsford, Andrea A. The Everyday Writer. 4th Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. Print.